


Stasis

by CC_Writes_Stuff



Category: Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: During Canon, Gen, How Do I Tag, Pre-Timeskip | Academy Phase (Fire Emblem: Three Houses), Sothis is a gremlin, Unspecified Route, What-If, headcanons, purely hypothetical, she cares though
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-11
Updated: 2020-11-11
Packaged: 2021-03-08 19:21:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,924
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27071917
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CC_Writes_Stuff/pseuds/CC_Writes_Stuff
Summary: Stasissta·sisnoun1. A period of inactivity2. A state of suspended animationSothis is gone, but that does not mean she has disappeared. She is alive, but that does not mean she lives. She cannot use her powers, but that does not mean she is powerless.She is something in-between, a pendulum frozen in the middle of its swing, stationary.
Relationships: My Unit | Byleth & Rhea, My Unit | Byleth & Sothis, Rhea & Sothis (Fire Emblem)
Kudos: 23





	Stasis

**Author's Note:**

> Aka my only three houses fic that has no subtle hints of Claude/Byleth

When Sothis next wakes, it’s not in her usual spot on her chair, nor to blackness.

When Sothis wakes, she finds herself looking around at a familiar room - Byleth’s room. The same grey rug, the same oak desk, the same creaky bed.

The woman in question is getting up from said bed, the old thing groaning and creaking horribly as her weight is taken off of it. Her hair is no longer blue, but mint green, nearly an exact match to Rhea’s. Her eyes are the same color.

Sothis... is confused. Because when she fused with Byleth, she expected...

Well, to be fair, she wasn’t sure _what_ she expected. Darkness surrounding her for the rest of her days, or perhaps being trapped in the Throne Room with nothing to do but sleep. Or perhaps even just ceasing to wake from an endless slumber, her body in some other plane of existence not even she knew about, her soul alive but mind and body not. She thought that it would be very much the same thing it had been, before she finally awoken from her slumber and first met Byleth.

She wasn’t expecting this... whatever this happens to mean. 

“Child...?” Sothis asks, quite unsure of what to do in this situation. Byleth, however, seems to have no indications that she’s heard her, and goes on changing her clothes. Sothis waves a hand in front of her face, but Byleth does not see it, does not even blink or gasp.

 _Ahh,_ Sothis muses, realizing what happened. She had been right in assuming that, by fusing with Byleth, she wouldn’t be able to speak with her. She had thought that might be the case, being a part of her, there in spirit and soul, but not at the same time. However, it seems there’s still a side-effect of _being_ with her, like she was before, but unable to interact with the world at all. 

That... was a prospect that seemed much more lonely than the alternatives.

* * *

With nothing else to do except sleep, Sothis spent her days watching over the child, interacting with their students and the faculty. Shopping with Dorthea and Hilda, having tea with Lorenz and Ferdinand, baking with Annette and Mercedes. Fishing at the pond, and gardening in the greenhouse.

And she was right - it was lonely, watching the world pass her by, but unable to interact with it, talk with anyone. Seeing Byleth grow and learn without her. Seeing the way Rhea looked at her, but unable to do anything about it. 

There was supposed to be a ceremony at the Holy Tomb at the end of the month, Sothis had heard in passing. A chance for Byleth to recieve some sort of blessing or gift from the Goddess - from her.

That did not make any sense! Sothis had already bestowed her power upon her, and was now trapped as some sort of wandering spirit unable to interact with anything! She was a pendulum, frozen in place mid-swing, looking at the world through a thick sheet of glass. There but not, alive but dead.

Sothis knew there was another point to that ceremony that Rhea was not telling anyone, and it vexed her trying to think of what. But, alas, Rhea’s lips were sealed, and her soul could only stray so far from Byleth, unable to go anywhere outside of a ten-foot radius or the Throne Room.

And yet... despite this... this situation she was trapped in, Sothis felt happy. Happy for Byleth, seeing her interact with her students, listening to them speak, training with them. She seemed more human in those moments than she ever had before, and Sothis wondered if that was, in part, due to her. Because while the child’s emotions were muted, wrapped in a thick blanket of fog and cotton, Sothis had felt every muted emotion Byleth seemed to have.

Worry for her students, during Miklan’s transformation and Flayn’s kidnapping. Joy, when Flayn was found and Byleth and her students victory at the Battle of the Eagle and Lion. Sorrow, in the wake of the destruction of Remire and the death of her father. Anger, at the knaves who had hurt the villagers and Monica - Kronya. She felt all of that and more throughout the months they had been with each other, feeling what Byleth could not. 

But Byleth’s emotions and ability to feel had grown after coming to Garreg Mach, possibly in no small part due to her. And even though she was gone, Sothis could still see Byleth experience those feelings.

So, Sothis watched Byleth and her students from an ethereal plane of existence deeply hidden from the world.

* * *

Sothis was surprised by how unsurprised she was at the fact that the Holy Tomb looked exactly like the throne room.

It seemed everything was the same, from the chair to the tiles to the green color of the room. 

Everyone was silent as they walked through the tomb, following Rhea and Byleth as they headed to the back of it, no one daring to disturb the heavy air that hung in the room. Sothis followed behind Byleth, an apprehensive feeling growing in her gut. Was that Byleth's feelings, or her own? At this point, she couldn't tell. What she could tell was that she did not like it.

"Professor... Do you recognize this throne?" Rhea asked, looking at Byleth as they came to a stop in front of the stairs, the students crowding behind them. A beat of silence, before Byleth shook her head. 

"No."

A lie. Byleth knew that. Sothis knew that. Rhea seemed to know that as well, frowning at Byleth, her gaze dark, almost angry. It smoothed over quickly, however, back to its mask of calm, motherly affection. 

"Go ahead. Sit upon the throne, Professor." 

Sothis watched, silent, as Byleth walked up the steps, her coat fluttering behind her. Her steps were slow, measured, hesitant. The room was silent. If a pin dropped, the sound would echo through the room. Everyone was waiting, expectant. 

Byleth sat.

_Ba-Bum._

She didn't look comfortable, leaning to the side and frowning down at the chair. It was funny to think about how the roles were reversed now. When they first met, and when Sothis and Byleth had fused. Sothis had been the one on the chair, and Byleth was down at the bottom of the steps. Now, though, Sothis was at the bottom of the steps, and Byleth was sitting on the chair.

It looked... wrong. She was supposed to be sitting up there - it felt right. 

Like some invisible string was tied around her heart, Sothis distantly felt herself walking up the steps, body not completely her own. The song Rhea had sung played in her ears, muffled and quiet, as if hearing it from a distance. The pendulum was moving, and she was moving with it, up towards the apex of her swing. There was a distant sense of... of longing, in her chest. 

There were exactly sixty stairs, Sothis counted when she reached the top. Sixty stairs, like how there are sixty seconds in a minute, sixty minutes in an hour. The flow of time, ever moving. The pendulum, past the apex and falling, falling downwards once more

 _Ba-Bum_.

Sothis pauses. When she pauses, so too does the pendulum, stationary at the nadir of its swing. But even though she has paused, time has not, moving forward in inches, sand running through the hourglass as Sothis turns and looks behind her, down the steps, at the students. Many are silent, waiting, expectant. Ignatz and Ashe looking at each other, up at the throne, around the room, back up again, the two of them buzzing with excitement. Linhardt, tired but alert, gaze fixed on the chair, on Byleth. Marianne and Mercedes, heads bowed and hands clasped together. Lorenz and Ferdinand, stiff in place, hands tight by their sides. 

Rhea, looking up expectantly, hands clasped together as if in prayer, her eyes glued to the chair - no, to _Byleth_. She was waiting for something. Something to happen. Something that wasn't a blessing or a revelation from the Goddess. 

For her, she realizes distantly. Sothis does not know how she knows that. She just... does. The glass around her vision is shattered with the realization, the sand spilling out of the hourglass. And she also knows that if she sits, something will happen, something involving her and Byleth. Sothis cannot allow that to happen, as much as she longs for something to happen.

She is dead, she knows that. She knows that her pendulum has stopped, and it will not continue, that she is stationary, stuck in her place between the living and the dead, the real and the unreal, trapped in some plane of existance hidden from mortal eyes. But Byleth's pendulum is still swinging, and she is still there, moving and living. Sothis' time has come to pass, but Byleth's hadn't.

So, she steps back, pushing down the sense of longing in her chest. 

_Ba-Bum._

"Nothing... what am I doing wrong?"

Then the Flame Emporer attacks. 

* * *

Once upon a time, Sothis had claimed that Lady Rhea did not realize there was a rat in her home.

She would like to reiterate that point. There was a den _full_ of rats in her home. First Jeritza, then Thomas, and then Monica, and now Edelgard and Hubert, of all people.

To think, the two of them had been hiding under their noses for almost an entire year! It vexed her, not being able to realize that sooner.

Now, Garreg Mach was at war with the Adrestian Empire.

The monastery was abuzz with the news, and classes had been all but shut down. Everyone was preparing to battle, while the Eagles seemed wholly conflicted in what to do - fight for their Kingdom, or fight with their friends. She had heard Claude bemoaning the fact he didn’t realize it sooner, and could tell Dimitri was loosing it, fast.

Byleth herself, meanwhile, was working herself to the bone, preparing the little ones for battle. Rarely eating, and when she wasn’t reading reports and making strategies with the Knights, she was training, and rarely slept. Sothis wanted to yell the fool - all the training would be for naught if she passed out from exhaustion!

But, alas, her chiding fell on deaf ears.

Sothis wished, at times like this, that her power was stronger. That she could turn back time more than a few minutes, grasp the strands and threads of it in her hands and pull it back, back, back a year, to when she had first met Byleth. To when she could have a chance at fixing something. Maybe Byleth could convince Edelgard to stand down, somehow.

Deep down, though, Sothis knows the empresses’ mind cannot be changed, not at this point in time. That her choice, the impending invasion and the upcoming battle were fate. And that rings hollow in her chest.

* * *

“I wish one of you were here,” Byleth says to the room one night, one hand on her father’s diary and the other on the handle of the Sword of the Creator. Her voice is quiet, soft, scared. “To tell me what to do. I don’t know what I should do. I don’t know how I can protect my students.”

 _“But I am here, fool,”_ Sothis says, unable to keep the fondness out of her voice as she shakes her head. Byleth cannot hear her, but she continues to speak anyways. _“I told you, I am a part of you. I always have been, and I always will be. I have never left.”_

She wraps her arms around Byleth in a hug she cannot feel, whispering comforts she cannot hear into her ear.

* * *

War had come.

The horns had sounded during lunch, and Byleth and the students had scrambled to defense. Now, there they were, locked in a battle with Empire troops. From her position floating above Byleth’s head, she could see Edelgard in the middle of the group, axe raised.

Sothis gulped.

Byleth was leading the charge against Edelgard alongside the Deer, Lions and Eagles. And although Byleth’s face was impassive, Sothis knew how hard it must be for her to fight her old students. All Sothis can do now is hope Byleth and her students can make it out alive.

The battle is long, harsh. At first, it seems like the tides are in Byleth and Garreg Mach’s favor, but… It seemed fate was against her, and despite Edelgard’s defeat, there were reinforcements in the form of her uncle, ultimately turning the tides and pushing the Church forces back.

Rhea had found Byleth amidst the battle, and told her to flee with the students. Byleth had seemed skeptical, but nodded, and runs off to assist in the evacuation.

Then, a mere five minutes later, a dragon, larger than life, flies over Garreg Mach Monastery.

Sothis can only stare in abject confusion, awe, realization, and anger, one after the other. Deep down, in her heart, she knows that is Rhea. She can see Claude and Dimitri somewhere down below her, standing out via the colored capes over their arms, and they look just as confused as Sothis feels as Rhea roars, and lets out a beam of something that kills a good number of soldiers and destroyed more than a few buildings.

 _What in Heaven’s name do you mean she’s a dragon?!_ One part of her screams. The other is surprised by how unsurprised she is. She knew Rhea was a woman of many secrets, but to think, she was a dragon. Or… could turn into one? It was very confusing.

But Sothis is unable to ask - she can only watch as, against Rhea’s orders, Byleth goes to help Rhea when she is outnumbered by Demonic Beasts.

 _“You fool!”_ Sothis screeches, incensed. _“You complete and utter fool! I know you have questions for Rhea, but does that really undercut your duties as Professor?!”_

Her words, as usual, fall on deaf ears.

Still tethered to Byleth, Sothis floats behind, watching as Byleth takes down one of the Demonic Beast… things… that are attacking Lady Rhea. The Sword of the Creator, a bloody red, breaks through the odd masks they have.

That, too, is not enough. The man who prevented Byleth from killing Kronya the first time around, with grey skin, white eyes and a white beard, an aura of pure malice following him, is there. And Sothis is helpless, stuck watching as some sort of spell knocks Byleth backwards, to the edge of the cliff-

  
  


-and the ground underneath her breaks, and she starts to fall.

Sothis’ heart falls, too, her mind racing to catch up as she dives after the Professor, her screams echoing in her ears.

The world moves too slow, and too fast, and yet is frozen, Byleth suspended in mid-air as she falls, weightless.

This is not good. There is no way Byleth can survive the fall off the cliff, and as much as Sothis wants to berate her for it, she desperately tries to figure out a way she can stop this. She will not let Byleth die.

But she’s powerless, now.

But Byleth is falling.

Some Goddess she is. Unable to save a simple human, trapped in some plane no mortal can interact with. Powers all but stripped of her, and shoved inside the body of a mercenary.

Sothis pauses. Her powers are with Byleth.

She is with Byleth. And she had said that she would always be a part of her. Does that mean…?

It’s a longshot, but she has no other choice.

Sothis speeds up as fast as she can, outstretching her own arms towards Byleth’s extended ones. Wind whistles in her ears. She can see water down below. A river.

From the height Byleth was at, there was no way she could survive hitting the surface.

  
  


Sothis reaches. Reaches towards Byleth, and towards a power long dormant, ticking in tune to her heartbeat.

  
  


The water is closer, now.

  
  
  
  


But Sothis is closer.

  
  


  
  
  


She reaches out. Grabs Byleth’s arm with shimmering, transcendent fingers. Calls forth her power, pushing it forth through her fingers into Byleth, focusing on where her fingers touch her arms.   
  


  
  


  
  


This time, Sothis does not turn back time. She freezes it. Freezes Byleth. A burst of gold, and the symbol of the Crest of Flames appear, hovering in gold sparkles above Byleth’s heart as she force activates her power the same night she first met her. Sothis squeezes her eyes shut, waiting, praying, for a final miracle.  
They hit the water.

Sothis does not need to breathe. Byleth does. She hopes she did enough.

Her eyes open. She sees dark blue, the water, and silver, a fish that darts away. She sees green - Byleth.

She sees a shimmering golden film around Byleth, like someone wrapped her in starlight and gold silk. Sothis floats through the water, past the fish, to look at Byleth. Her eyes are closed, as is her mouth, chest not moving or falling. The gold shimmers and gleams, and Sothis can see the water parting around her.

Byleth sinks, and sinks, and does not wake, but Sothis knows she is safe. She does not quite know what she did, but she is safe.

She wants to cheer. But then the urge to sleep is overwhelming, and her eyes slide shut without permission. When she next opens them, she finds herself in the Throne Room.

When Sothis next wakes, the world is much changed.

**Author's Note:**

> How I Wrote This: An Autobiography By CC
> 
> Step One: Think hard about game lore that is never really explored.  
> Step Two: Come up with a headcanon  
> Step Three: ???  
> Step Four: Profit


End file.
